Yeah, it's definitely too easy ATM to stay at 0 threat. At some point, instead of tempting you with goodies, I'd love to see the SK start encroaching on your empire...
SK: "There are some bandits in your territory that have proven an annoyance to my forces. We'll need to construct an outpost near Athica to keep an eye on these bandits...I'm sure this won't be an issue."
You: "Uh....."
or...
SK: "My spies have caught wind of a possible uprising stirring in the streets of Athica. While I know our nations are at peace, I'd like to station some soldiers in the area to remind any dissidents of that peace. You can expect my Warg-Riders by nightfall."
You: "Um..."
Also, while debugging the 'not attacking Shards' issue, I found some branches of AI logic that would target purely random shards instead of a focused attack to bring one down. We'll need to make sure those branches aren't being weighed too heavily by the AI.